Wilderness School
by NotUrAverageMusician
Summary: What happened before The Lost Hero and the trick of the Mist? Wilderness School of course! This fanfic tells of how Leo and Piper first met and their adventures at their correctional school before Camp Half Blood.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, and thanks for reading my new book: Wilderness School. I hope you like it a lot, this is something I always wanted to do. So disclaimer: All characters from HoO and PJO belong to Rick Riordan. **

As I walked into Wilderness School I just knew I wasn't going to like it. I didn't belong with all these criminals, it's not my fault that people gave me what I asked for. Stupid Jane, why oh why did she have to suggest this dump to my dad?

I turned behind me to see the wicked witch herself drive away in my dad's fancy new black Ferrari. Ghah! I wanted to strangle that lady! I looked at the school where I had just been discarded. It didn't look nice at all like many of the other boarding schools I've been sent to. The paint was pealing off the white walls, the lawn was covered with dead grass, there was a track field down the hill, but it was covered with thick bush and cactuses making it not usable. It was hot too and I wanted to get inside to the air conditioning as quickly as possible.

I walked up the cement stairs and through the doors, though I had to jiggle them a bit to get them unstuck. Inside was just one long hallway with windows on either side to let in the light, but the first thing I noticed immediately was that there was no AC. A couple kids were leaning on the walls giving me looks; they obviously knew I was the new kid here. They looked like punks. One guy had a huge nose piercing and was wearing a black leather jacket with jeans puled way too low. Another girl, I swear, had a mullet about a foot high. I just held my head up, avoided eye contact, and walked to the principle's office.

It was just a door in the middle of the long hallway, but it had bars going through it, like someone was going to try to break in or something. I opened the door and walked straight in, slamming it behind me.

He looked very startled to see me.

"Oh!" He exclaimed, jumping out of his chair and practically hitting his head on the low ceiling, "Ms. McLean! We've been expecting you!" He ran his fingers through his short hair nervously. "I am Mr. Goyette and I am principle here at Wilderness School. I most certainly hope you like it here." Mr. Goyette was a middle-aged man who was a little plump and he seemed like the type to yell and overreact to little things. I could tell that I didn't like him already. He wore a peach work shirt that was drenched with pit stains. Ew!

"Hi." I said.

He seemed to sense that I wasn't in the mood to talk. "Okay then Ms. McLean, here are your student orientation things and textbooks that you will need here. I would show you around, but I am quite busy at the moment so umm…" Mr. Goyette looked out the one window in his office that was covered with bars just as a Hispanic boy wearing a T-shirt that said "cool story bro- tell it again" was walking by. He was fidgeting with his hands and I already got the impression he was highly ADHD. "Leo! Get in here at once!" He screeched to the boy. His super nice attitude had changed to yelling in a heartbeat.

The boy ambled in and right off the bat began numbering off excuses for something that I could tell that he had actually did. This boy, Leo, looked friendly and the most normal out of all these creepy students. "Mr. Goyette. I swear I didn't do it, I would never in my life even consider doing such a thing. I mean there are so many reasons why this would not be my doing and I would never be so stupid-"

"Leo!" Mr. Goyette broke in, "This is not about whatever you did or didn't do! For heaven's sake boy you are getting in so much trouble this semester!"

Relief flashed over Leo's face and he smiled. "Oh, that's good."

"Leo, this is Piper McLean, she's new here, and Piper this is Leo Valdez."

"Oh hey." Leo said to me like he had just noticed me. He flashed me an "I'm sorry that you have to be here" kind of look.

"I need someone to show her around." Mr. Goyette continued, "And since you seem to be free you can be her guide." He nodded like that was that and promptly sat back down at his desk, the chair creaking when he sat.

Leo raised his eyebrow. "Oh actually, I have some stuff to do-"

"Great! Glad you can give her a tour. It is your duty to show her around the school until she is comfortable." Mr. Goyette cut in.

"Um, okay, I guess." Leo said.

"Now leave." Mr. Goyette waved his hand dismissively.

Leo shook his head and walked out into the hallway. I shouldered my bag, took one last glare to Mr. Goyette, and followed the kid out.

**Thanks for reading, please review!**

**-NotUrAverageMusician**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi~ thanks for reading and on to chapter two of my Wilderness School. Disclaimer: I do not own HoO or PJO, Rick Riordan does.**

"So," ventured Leo as we strode down the hall, "how did you get here?"

I smirked; this story was always a fun one to tell. No one ever believes me. "You won't believe it."

Leo rolled his eyes, "Oh yeah? Try me."

I sighed, "Okay so it was just about a month ago now, and I was at this car dealership place…" Leo nodded for me to go on, "Then I just went up and asked the clerk if I could have this shiny BMW. He told me that I could keep it for free and even gave me the keys! So I had taken some driver's ed classes and I just drove out with it."

"Wow, that's so cool!"

"Well, it wasn't that cool when the cops caught me driving home. Whenever I do that to someone they always come to their senses and call the cops. I'd always been able to get out of it until, well, now." I was waiting for Leo to call me bluff or start laughing, but his expression remained serious and he nodded like he knew exactly what I meant but wouldn't tell me why. "How did you get here?" I asked him as we took a sharp left to the dorms.

"I ran away." Was simply all he said.

"You got here for running away?" I raised my eyebrow.

"Well, I ran away quite a few times actually. I hated foster homes and there was just this feeling inside of me that I had to leave, to get away. You know what I mean?"

I nodded because I knew exactly what he meant, except I had never been one with enough guts to actually do it.

Leo stopped short and handed me back my papers. "I can't go any farther because these are the girl's dorms, the guy's dorms are upstairs, but your dorm number is 77 so just go there. You can meet me back out here in a few and we an continue the rest of the tour. My advise to you is to dump your bags and run out at full speed." I raised my eyebrows, "Your dorm mates are stuck-up divas and I can tell you won't get along with them."

"Just great." I waved to Leo and continued down the hallway with doors on either side like a hotel room. I stopped at a one towards the middle that had the number 77 on it and opened it. Two girls were sitting with enough makeup for a Halloween party on their beds gossiping about something. Their bright pink nail polish practically blinded me and both of them had fake tans. Don't they know that'll cause cancer? The one on the bed closest to the door was blonde and the one closest to the window had black hair. They rolled their eyes at me.

"Oh." Said the girl with flat blonde hair, "So _this_ is our new roomie."

"Listen up, girlie." Said the girl with straight black hair. "I'm gonna say this straight out. You will never be able to replace Narissa, so give up trying to be our friend."

I had to bite my tongue so I wouldn't say _already have_. "I'm Gemma." Said the blonde, "And this is Denise." Gemma gestured to the dark haired girl.

"I'm Piper." I muttered through clenched teeth. There's nothing worse on this world than a mean girl in my opinion.

"I guess you'll have to use Narissa's bed, but don't be in there unless you have to. Don't come in this room unless it is a necessity. I suggest using the showers in the girl's locker room." Denise snarled.

"Okay, message received." I said.

"Good." Gemma stated, "Now get unpacked and don't come back till night." Then the two of them continued talking about who was dating who. I sat down on the bed in the middle of the two girls and started unzipping my bag. On my bedside table I saw a framed photograph of three girls. Gemma, Denise, and some other girl who I suspected was this Narissa chic they keep talking about. Her makeup and nail polish made her fit right in with Gemma and Denise. She must've been here before I was and was like kicked out or something? I don't know. As I unpacked and eavesdropped I got some dish on Leo.

"- yeah I mean Valdez is hot, but he's so ADHD jumpy." Denise dished.

"Yeah, but he's so mysterious. No one knows what kind of secrets he has in his head." Gemma put in. I almost laughed. Leo? Hot? No way. I think of him as a possible good friend. I hope we do become friends because he looks like the kind of guy that could help me pull some major pranks on these two freaks.

I finished up packing and sprinted out the door. I sort of expected some sort of acknowledgement from Gemma or Denise, but I didn't get one. Whatever. I didn't care.

I hated Jane for sending me to this awful place. I was mad at my dad for agreeing to it. I wanted to sass Gemma and Denise right back because they don't deserve to push me around like this. Oh why did this have to happen to me!

I ran up to Leo, who was fiddling with some sort of pipe-cleaner/motor/wire thing, trying to keep the tears out of my eyes.

**Like it? Tell me about it- please review! **

**-NotUrAverageMusician**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey people of Fanfiction! Here is Chapter 3 of Wilderness School, hope you like it! Disclaimer: HoO and PJO belong to Rick Riordan, not me. **

Leo looked startled to see me a little emotional, but I just asked him to keep leading me around and so he did. I looked away and rubbed my eyes. _Get composed_, I thought to myself.

"So this is the cafeteria where we eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner." Leo said as we entered a big room with many circular tables with plastic seats connected to them. "They serve pretty much anything repulsive, stick with the brand stuff if you don't want to get food poisoning."

"Did someone actually get food poisoning?" I asked timidly keeping an eye on an old lady in a hairnet who was standing in the kitchen. She was spooning some gray glop into many different plastic bowls. I couldn't really tell if the stuff was solid or liquid. I shuddered.

"Like I said, just stick to the brand stuff. Cheerios in the morning, salad for lunch, and pizza for dinner- they always order it from Papa Gino's. If you know what to eat it's not too bad." He shrugged.

"Okay, thanks."

"Just doing my job." Leo smiled, "Now," he said as we walked past the cafeteria to another area of the school, "this is the gym. Avoid it like the plague."

"What's so bad about it?" I asked. I'm actually quite sporty, I always try out for the volleyball team in each new school I go to and I always get in. I peered through a window to see the inside of the dreaded gym. It looked just like any other gym, the colors were orange and purple because those were the school colors. The floor was shiny with a gopher logo because that was their mascot and there were bleachers on both sides. There were those bars that you can do pull-ups on and a rope in the corner for people to climb up.

"Look over there." Leo told me pointing to the far corner of the gym, "See that man?" I nodded because I did. He looked wicked short and had hair as curly as Leo's, an orange and purple hat was pulled down over his head and it looked like he had the hairiest legs I had ever seen. He was all decked out in a gym uniform with a red whistle around his neck.

"Who is _he_?" I asked Leo.

"That's Coach Hedge." The way he said it made it seem like he was describing Darth Vader. "He's the gym teacher around here with no mercy. It's the worst 45 minutes of the day. He works us like mules and laughs at our pain. Even some of the toughest guys can't take his full-fledged workouts."

"Really?" I asked, looking at that little man, "He doesn't look it."

"Oh believe me this guy is hard core." Leo whispered, "Now let's go before he sees us." We ducked out of sight and continued around the school.

Leo pointed out the classrooms and in each one how bad the teachers were and how hard the class was. For example, Mr. Richards, the science teacher was awful and always gave out detentions for the stupidest things and Mrs. Hill, the history teacher, was super nice and has this theory that all these bad kids just need a little candy to be good citizens again. Leo said that on Saturdays if you aren't in trouble you get to go on the bus into town. But that's a big _if_ for _if_ you aren't in trouble because all the teachers overreact to the littlest things and most likely you'll be in detention for a week for breaking someone's pencil.

"All in all, I think all the authority here are scared of us." Leo finished.

"Wow, this is way different from my other schools." I told him.

"Wilderness School is one of a kind, and even with all of this detention junk the teachers are still blind to the real problems." Just as he said that a wicked buff guy at like 200 pounds walked by, He looked 6 years older than high school age and he had a permanent glare in his almost black eyes. "That's Dylan Nickels." Leo whispered as Dylan pushed a scrawny kid out of the way to get through a door. "He's the ultimate bully. I guess he's the bully of all bullies. He almost never gets in trouble because, like I said, the teachers are scared of him. He does anything he wants."

"I'll stay in a 5 foot radius." I murmured.

"Yeah, most of us try to, but it's almost unavoidable if you are his target."

"Huh." I said, "So how do you get away from it all? You seem to be the kind of guy who avoids this kind of stuff."

Leo laughed, "Yeah, well I can navigate this place with my eyes closed and I'll tell you a secret, this building is so old that it has secret passageways, you know, ways around the building and outside to avoid the war or something? Well, they've got them and it's the perfect way to sneak around. The teachers don't even know about it."

I grinned so widely that my mouth hurt. This was perfect, a way to avoid Gemma and Denise, a way to get outside, and a way to escape. "So are you going to show me?"

Leo shrugged, "Sure, but you'll be the first other than me."

"Sweet, this is perfect!" I almost jumped up and down. "Let's go!"

"Actually, first it's time for dinner and you can't skip dinner because they legit take roll call before you can start eating, if anyone's not there or late it's detention."

"When does lunch start?" I asked him.

Leo tilted his head to the side, "Let me check the time." He ducked into a teacher's classroom and came out looking panicked, "Five minutes ago!"

My eyes widened. This was not a good way to start off my first day.

**Please review! And have an awesome day!**

**-NotUrAverageMusician**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi Fanfiction! Sorry for being so late on the updates :( I've been ****_really_**** sick lately... but now I'm ok so expect more in my story! Disclaimer: I do not own the Heroes of Olympus characters.**

Leo and I started sprinting for the lunch room at top speed.

"Do you think that I won't get in trouble because it's my first day?" I asked him between gulps of air as we ran. It was hard to keep pace with Leo, he was super fast.

"Depends who's being the lunch monitor. I think most of them would let it slide."

Relief washed through my body. If I get in trouble on my first day that would totally mark me as a troublemaker. Well, I mean I guess I am, but this school I want to start fresh.

Leo skidded to a stop a few feet in front of me at the entrance to the cafeteria. "Oh, no." he muttered.

No sooner had the words left his mouth a big, booming voice erupted from the lunch room. "You are late!" I leaned in the doorway to see who was making such a racket and found Coach Hedge's beady eyes glaring at me. He looked tinier in person then when I had seen him in the gym, but a lot scarier. "Why are you two LATE!" He bellowed.

"Sorry, sir," I stammered, "but I was just being shown around the school and we lost track of the time. Today's, my first day, you know." I tried to smile at the guy, but he only scrunched up his face and handed Leo and I both pink detention slips.

Leo sighed, everyone in the lunch room was staring at us. "C'mon, let's eat." He urged. I walked with him through the crowd of delinquents and thought about how wrong it was for me to be here. I mean, it seems like this role of a truly evil kid was thrust upon me, the only thing that seemed right about this school is my friendship with Leo.

We had to grab the normal cafeteria lunch because everyone else had taken the pizza. It looked like some substitute for spaghetti with oily pasta sauce with a side of animal crackers and some gelatin compound. Leo didn't even bother with the food, he just took the animal crackers and a water. We sat down at a table by ourselves and ate in silence. I picked at the gelatin with my fork and I could just feel all the people staring at me.

I overheard Gemma and Denise laughing super loud, but I don't think it was really that funny.

After lunch Leo apologized for being so irresponsible, but I shook it off.

"It's fine." I said, "You don't need to be sorry. I'll see you tomorrow." Then I turned around and walked by myself to my dorm. I stopped at the doorway and desided what I was going to do right then and there. I can't let these mean girls push me around like that. It's time to show them that Piper McLean won't take any of their junk. If this school was going to be a good experience than I would have to put matters into my own hands. I didn't care if it was going to mark me as a loser or a troublemaker or anything else those mean girls call me.

I opened the door and saw Gemma and Denise already changed into matching pairs of pink, sparkly PJ's and gossiping again on their beds. "-I know she's such a…"

"Hey." I said, kicking off my Vans. They both looked at me with their mouths open like they'd let out some sort of secret. Well, newsflash, I don't care if they're talking about me. I smiled a sickly sweet smile. "Listen, you don't have to act like you weren't talking about me, I get the message that you hate my guts even though you haven't properly gotten to know me." The girls looked shocked. I smirked because now I had the upper hand and went on, "That's okay, I don't like you either. I am going to file an application for a single dorm room because I _can't stand_ the two of you, but for the time being I'll be sleeping in the girls' locker room and I promise that you won't see any of me in here and anywhere outside of class." They glared at me. "Goodbye." I huffed and then I walked into the dark hallways.

"You'll be sorry McLean!" I heard one of them call after me.

"No, you'll be sorry." I laughed. I practically skipped down the empty halls, my feet slapping on the tile.

I found my way to the locker room pretty easily and I was surprised how nice it looked. It seemed like only the gym and the locker rooms were actually up to date. When I opened the door the first thing I realized was that it was not smelly at all. I guess when you have girls like Gemma and Denise going to this school you have a lot of girls that would never break a sweat or do any physical activity other than speed texting.

There was an open area out front with orange lockers lining the walls. I walked down the length of the room into a section with sparkly clean showers that will be useful for the morning. There were changing areas and bathrooms and a section with a bunch of cubbies filled with gym equipment.

I made my makeshift bed on a bench near the showers with a rolled up towel for a pillow. I curled up right there feeling much more comfortable then I would have if I had stayed in that stupid shack they call a dorm room here.

When the motion activated lights turned off I smiled on the bench. _This is so much better than sleeping in an empty mansion where your dad ignores you and his agent is out to get you. _Then I closed my eyes.

**Please comment! I'm begging! hahaha. :D**

**Stay amazing!**

**-NotUrAverageMusician**


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